Book Review: The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy by Tim Tate and Brad Johnson

This was a fascinating look at the questions surrounding the assassination of RFK and the subsequent “investigation” into his death. Despite ostensibly occurring in front of dozens of eye-witnesses, the murder has long been one surrounded by allegations of conspiracy and cover up. This is in part due to the victim, in part to the state of the world and US government at the time of the death, and in part due to the bizarre series of events themselves. Tate and Johnson do a marvelous job at presenting the facts as they were originally presented and then supplementing them with the material that has been made available in the intervening years. They top this off with a pointed series of spot-on-pertinent questions and then patiently point out the lack of even remotely pertinent “answers” that have been provided by various government and law enforcement entities over the course of the past fifty years.

The book reads like a novel; the time leading up to the events at the Ambassador Hotel on that fateful night are presented in crisp, clear prose that runs taut and – even though I knew roughly what happened – kept me on the edge of my seat for the details. Their research was also well presented and supplemented with historical context that kept even the recitations of facts (or “facts”, as the case may be and the evidence suggests) from ever feeling dry or monotonous. This was a great look at a long-standing political conundrum (did Sirhan Sirhan act alone or was there a larger conspiracy underpinning the assassination – and, in fact, did Sirhan Sirhan even actually assassinate RFK) as well as an engaging and informative look at a particular moment in time when the U.S. may well have gone in a very different direction (geo)politically had events played out differently…

All in all it was a fascinating and timely read, and I’m looking forward to digging into the other topics Tate and Johnson have investigated.

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